Workers in China’s Rural Industries

In this chapter we examine the incomes of employees in China’s rural enterprises, often referred to as township, village and private enterprises (TVPs). This rapidly growing group — now numbering almost 100 million — occupies an intermediate position between the highly regulated urban wage employment sector, on the one hand, and the mass of rural peasant household producers, on the other. We begin with the macroeconomic context, showing the crucial role that rural enterprise employment now plays in absorbing the increment to the rural labour force. In the second section we present estimates of income functions for the rural enterprise sector, using data from the 1988 survey. The third and fourth sections are comparative: we compare the income functions of rural and urban wage employees, and rural households receiving income from enterprise employment with other rural households. We also investigate access to rural enterprise employment. The final section contains a summary and conclusions.